Objectives:To examine the impact of providing healthcare during or after health emergencies caused by viral epidemic outbreaks on healthcare workers´(HCWs) mental health, and to assess the available evidence base regarding interventions to reduce such impact.Design: Systematic rapid review and meta-analysis.Data sources: MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO, searched up to 23 March 2020. Method:We selected observational and experimental studies examining the impact on mental health of epidemic outbreaks on HCWs. One reviewer screened titles and abstracts, and two reviewers independently reviewed full texts. We extracted study characteristics, symptoms, prevalence of mental health problems, risk factors, mental health interventions, and its impact. We assessed risk of bias for each individual study and used GRADE to ascertain the certainty of the evidence. We conducted a narrative and tabulated synthesis of the results. We pooled data using random-effects meta-analyses to estimate the prevalence of specific mental health problems. Results:We included 61 studies (56 examining impact on mental health and five about interventions to reduce such impact). Most were conducted in Asia (59%), in the hospital setting (79%), and examined the impact of the SARS epidemic (69%). The pooled prevalence was higher for anxiety (45%, 95% CI 21 to 69%; 6 studies, 3,373 participants), followed by

Background: This study aimed at examining the impact of providing healthcare during health emergencies caused by viral epidemic outbreaks on healthcare workers' (HCWs) mental health; to identify factors associated with worse impact, and; to assess the available evidence base regarding interventions to reduce such impact.Method: Rapid systematic review. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and PsycINFO (inception to August 2020). We pooled data using random-effects meta-analyses to estimate the prevalence of specific mental health problems, and used GRADE to ascertain the certainty of evidence.Results: We included 117 studies. The pooled prevalence was higher for acute stress disorder (40% (95%CI 39 to 41%)), followed by anxiety (30%, (30 to 31%)), burnout (28% (26 to 31%)), depression (24% (24 to 25%)), and post-traumatic stress disorder (13% (13 to 14%)). We identified factors associated with the likelihood of developing those problems, including sociodemographic (younger age and female gender), social (lack of social support, stigmatization), and occupational (working in a high-risk environment, specific occupational roles, and lower levels of specialised training and job experience) factors. Four studies reported interventions for frontline HCW: two educational interventions increased confidence in pandemic self-efficacy and in interpersonal problems solving (very low certainty), whereas one multifaceted intervention improved anxiety, depression, and sleep quality (very low certainty).Limitations: We only searched three databases, and the initial screening was undertaken by a single reviewer. Conclusion:Given the very limited evidence regarding the impact of interventions to tackle mental health problems in HCWs, the risk factors identified represent important targets for future interventions. Providing frontline healthcare during infectious outbreaks increases the